Rob Holden ? who runs SA Sailing?s coaches training programme - was named coach of the year at the South Western District?s Regional Sports Awards.
?I was nominated by the Coaches Commission, but obviously I thought I didn't stand a chance since I was up against coaches in much bigger codes, like rugby and soccer,? he said.
?But I?m delighted because sailing isn?t a mainline sport, and it gets great exposure when things like this happen.?
The award puts Mr. Holden in line for the Provincial Awards, which are expected to be announced in March, and which will also draw nominations from the Cape Metropole, Boland, and the West Coast.
?Sailing isn?t seen as accessible, but we?re working hard to change that: in fact, it is very accessible, and it?s an Olympic sport for South Africa,? he said.
Besides holding the post of National Training Manager for South African Sailing, Mr. Holden is also its Coach and high performance manager, and the nominated expert for the International Sailing Federation.
?I?m mainly a coach of coaches ,and in the last year I?ve trained 60 people as level 1 and 2 coaches during ten courses which we?ve held here in South Africa, and I?ve also coached 40 people for an internationally recognised safety certificate,? he said.
?I?ve also run high performance courses in Maputo Mozambique for top coaches from South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania which were funded by Olympic Solidarity.?
As a result of a level 1 coaching course which he conducted, Mozambique?s girls class Optimist team took bronze in the All African Games.
He has also taught catamaran sailing and boat safety boat to coaches from Egypt, Fiji, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Madagascar, and Papua?New?Guinea.
?I?ve coached a number of young South Africans to positions in provincial and national championships - including a 420 team who came 2nd?in the Youth Nationals and second in the Eastern Cape championships.
?And I?ve set up the South African Coaching Framework, the South African High Performance strategy, and the South African Long Term Participant Development (LTPD) program which was developed yachtsmen, Olympic sailors, administrators, officials and sailing coaches together with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and the Department of Sports and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) to improve the quality of sailing in the country, and attract new blood into the sport.
?I was also in charge of all the organisation and logistics for the South African sailing team at this year?s Olympics,? said Mr. Holden.
He said that 2013 is going to be an incredibly busy year for him. ?As the regional development officer for the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), I?m involved in Sail Africa, which aims to ?develop sailing in all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
?In this capacity I?m working towards getting countries like Lesotho, Swaziland, and Malawi into ISAF and eventually to get them to take part in the Olympics.
?But I?m also going to be putting a lot of energy into making sailing more accessible at home, where many, many people can?t afford the sport.
?To do this, we begin by training coaches, and we?re working with organisations like the Lotto and the Department to make it happen.?
Mossel Bay councilor and Mossel Bay Tourism board member, Emil Scheepers, congratulated Mr. Holden on his award.
?Rob?s done almost more than anyone else to put Mossel Bay on the map as a preferred sailing destination, and this has already had a real impact on tourism: it?s brought literally hundreds of sailors and their families here for their regattas and championships ? and having seen how great Mossel Bay really is, we expect that many of them will return for their holidays this year and in the future.
?We wish him well in the Provincial competition, and in his work for sailing in Mossel Bay and South Africa,? he said.
More information
Mossel Bay Tourism: www.visitmosselbay.co.za and www.facebook.com/VisitMosselBay Bay
NEW YORK (AP) - David Wright and the New York Mets have agreed to a $138 million, eight-year contract that would be the richest in franchise history, WFAN radio reported early Friday.
The deal would keep the All-Star third baseman under contract with the Mets through the 2020 season, when he will be 37.
Without a new contract, Wright would be eligible for free agency after next season. Last month, the Mets exercised his $16 million option for 2013. That money is included in the new agreement, according to WFAN, which broadcasts Mets games.
The team could not immediately be reached for comment.
Wright batted .306 with 21 homers and 93 RBIs last season as the Mets finished fourth in the NL East at 74-88. He also had a .391 on-base percentage to go with 41 doubles and 15 stolen bases.
A homegrown fan favorite and the face of the franchise, Wright is the club's career leader in several major offensive categories including hits, RBIs, runs and walks.
Johan Santana signed a $137.5 million, six-year contract with New York after being acquired in a trade from Minnesota before the 2008 season.
Mets general manager Sandy Alderson had said that signing Wright and reigning Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey to multiyear deals were his top priorities this offseason.
Alderson, however, would not rule out trading Dickey in a deal that could upgrade the roster.
Selected with the 38th overall pick in the 2001 amateur draft, Wright made his Mets debut in July 2004 and quickly secured the job at third base - a trouble spot for the team throughout its colorful history.
Wright has made six All-Star teams and won two Gold Gloves, compiling a .301 career batting average with 204 home runs and 818 RBIs in 8 1/2 major league seasons. He has often expressed his desire to play his entire career with the Mets.
Wright, who had a base salary of $15.25 million this year, appears poised to sign a contract comparable in total compensation to the big deals handed out this year to star third basemen Evan Longoria and Ryan Zimmerman.
Longoria agreed Monday to a $136.6 million, 10-year contract with Tampa Bay that adds six guaranteed seasons and $100 million to his previous deal. It includes a team option for 2023 that could make the agreement worth $144.6 million over 11 years.
Zimmerman, a friend of Wright's since they grew up playing youth baseball together in Virginia, signed a deal with Washington in February that guaranteed him $126 million for eight seasons, with a club option for 2020.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Wright, Mets agree to $138M, 8-year deal?
NEW YORK (AP) - David Wright and the New York Mets have agreed to a $138 million, eight-year contract that would be the richest in franchise history, WFAN radio reported early Friday.
International study provides more solid measure of melting in polar ice sheetsPublic release date: 29-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hannah Hickey hickeyh@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
The planet's two largest ice sheets have been losing ice faster during the past decade, causing widespread confusion and concern. A new international study provides a firmer read on the state of continental ice sheets and how much they are contributing to sea-level rise.
Dozens of climate scientists have reconciled their measurements of ice sheet changes in Antarctica and Greenland over the past two decades. The results, published Nov. 29 in the journal Science, roughly halve the uncertainty and discard some conflicting observations.
"We are just beginning an observational record for ice," said co-author Ian Joughin, a glaciologist in the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory who is lead author on an accompanying review article. "This creates a new long-term data set that will increase in importance as new measurements are made."
The paper examined three methods that had been used by separate groups and established common places and times, allowing researchers to discard some outlying observations and showing that the results agree to within the uncertainties of the methods.
"It provides a simpler picture," said co-author Benjamin Smith, a research scientist at the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory. "In the 1990s, not very much was happening. Sometime around 1999, the ice sheets started losing more mass, and probably have been losing mass more rapidly over time since then."
The effort, led by Andrew Shepherd at the University of Leeds in the UK, reconciles three existing ways to measure this loss. The first method takes an accounting approach, combining climate models and observations to tally up the ice gain or loss. Two other methods use special satellites to precisely measure the height and gravitational pull of the ice sheets to calculate how much ice is present.
Each method has strengths and weaknesses. Until now scientists using each method released estimates independent from the others. This is the first time they have all compared their methods for the same times and locations.
"It brought everyone together," Joughin said. "It's comparing apples to apples."
Since 1998, scientists have published at least 29 different estimates of how much ice sheets have contributed to sea-level rise, ranging from 1.9 mm (0.075 inches) a year to 0.2 mm (0.0079 inches) drop per year. The new, combined estimate is that ice sheets have since 1992 contributed on average 0.59 mm (0.023 inches) to sea-level rise per year, with an uncertainty of 0.2 mm per year. Overall sea levels have risen by about 3.3 mm per year during that time period, much of which is due to expansion of warmer ocean waters.
"Establishing more consistent estimates for the contribution from ice sheets should reduce confusion, both among the scientific community and among the public," Joughin said.
Understanding why the ice sheets have been shedding mass faster in the last decade is an area of intense research. The accelerated ice loss was not predicted by the models, leading the latest International Panel on Climate Change to place no upper limit on its estimate for future ice-sheet loss.
Joughin is lead author of an accompanying article that reviews factors that cause ice sheets to lose more mass. In particular, it looks at what happens when warmer ocean waters reach the underside of large floating Antarctic ice sheets or abut glaciers in Greenland's fjords.
Joughin and his co-authors, Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University and David Holland of New York University, suggest ways to better monitor and understand those changes: Create finer-grained ocean models that could include narrow fjords, develop more models to study the interaction between ice sheets and ocean water, and improve ice sheet monitoring.
Taking measurements at ice edges is perilous, they write, because skyscraper-sized chunks of ice can topple on floating instruments with no notice, and outgoing glaciers can scour any instruments moored to the ocean floor.
Understanding ice sheets is central to modeling global climate and predicting sea-level rise. Even tiny changes to sea level, when added over an entire ocean, can have substantial effects on storm surges and flooding in coastal and island communities.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet could trigger abrupt changes globally if it were to become unstable, and although Greenland is thought to be more stable, the recent calving of glaciers has led to some alarm.
Joughin believes the recent activity is a reason to pay attention, but not to panic.
"We don't fully understand why it's accelerating," Joughin said. "But the longer-term observations we have, the more solid predictions we will be able to make."
###
The UW portions of the research were funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
For more information, contact Joughin at 206-221-3177 or ian@apl.washington.edu and Smith at 206-616-9176 or bsmith@apl.washington.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
International study provides more solid measure of melting in polar ice sheetsPublic release date: 29-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hannah Hickey hickeyh@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
The planet's two largest ice sheets have been losing ice faster during the past decade, causing widespread confusion and concern. A new international study provides a firmer read on the state of continental ice sheets and how much they are contributing to sea-level rise.
Dozens of climate scientists have reconciled their measurements of ice sheet changes in Antarctica and Greenland over the past two decades. The results, published Nov. 29 in the journal Science, roughly halve the uncertainty and discard some conflicting observations.
"We are just beginning an observational record for ice," said co-author Ian Joughin, a glaciologist in the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory who is lead author on an accompanying review article. "This creates a new long-term data set that will increase in importance as new measurements are made."
The paper examined three methods that had been used by separate groups and established common places and times, allowing researchers to discard some outlying observations and showing that the results agree to within the uncertainties of the methods.
"It provides a simpler picture," said co-author Benjamin Smith, a research scientist at the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory. "In the 1990s, not very much was happening. Sometime around 1999, the ice sheets started losing more mass, and probably have been losing mass more rapidly over time since then."
The effort, led by Andrew Shepherd at the University of Leeds in the UK, reconciles three existing ways to measure this loss. The first method takes an accounting approach, combining climate models and observations to tally up the ice gain or loss. Two other methods use special satellites to precisely measure the height and gravitational pull of the ice sheets to calculate how much ice is present.
Each method has strengths and weaknesses. Until now scientists using each method released estimates independent from the others. This is the first time they have all compared their methods for the same times and locations.
"It brought everyone together," Joughin said. "It's comparing apples to apples."
Since 1998, scientists have published at least 29 different estimates of how much ice sheets have contributed to sea-level rise, ranging from 1.9 mm (0.075 inches) a year to 0.2 mm (0.0079 inches) drop per year. The new, combined estimate is that ice sheets have since 1992 contributed on average 0.59 mm (0.023 inches) to sea-level rise per year, with an uncertainty of 0.2 mm per year. Overall sea levels have risen by about 3.3 mm per year during that time period, much of which is due to expansion of warmer ocean waters.
"Establishing more consistent estimates for the contribution from ice sheets should reduce confusion, both among the scientific community and among the public," Joughin said.
Understanding why the ice sheets have been shedding mass faster in the last decade is an area of intense research. The accelerated ice loss was not predicted by the models, leading the latest International Panel on Climate Change to place no upper limit on its estimate for future ice-sheet loss.
Joughin is lead author of an accompanying article that reviews factors that cause ice sheets to lose more mass. In particular, it looks at what happens when warmer ocean waters reach the underside of large floating Antarctic ice sheets or abut glaciers in Greenland's fjords.
Joughin and his co-authors, Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University and David Holland of New York University, suggest ways to better monitor and understand those changes: Create finer-grained ocean models that could include narrow fjords, develop more models to study the interaction between ice sheets and ocean water, and improve ice sheet monitoring.
Taking measurements at ice edges is perilous, they write, because skyscraper-sized chunks of ice can topple on floating instruments with no notice, and outgoing glaciers can scour any instruments moored to the ocean floor.
Understanding ice sheets is central to modeling global climate and predicting sea-level rise. Even tiny changes to sea level, when added over an entire ocean, can have substantial effects on storm surges and flooding in coastal and island communities.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet could trigger abrupt changes globally if it were to become unstable, and although Greenland is thought to be more stable, the recent calving of glaciers has led to some alarm.
Joughin believes the recent activity is a reason to pay attention, but not to panic.
"We don't fully understand why it's accelerating," Joughin said. "But the longer-term observations we have, the more solid predictions we will be able to make."
###
The UW portions of the research were funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
For more information, contact Joughin at 206-221-3177 or ian@apl.washington.edu and Smith at 206-616-9176 or bsmith@apl.washington.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Read more about Tony Morris and Sales Doctor at The Evening Standard.
Dear Sales Doctor
Q: I sell out in the field and it can be quite a lonely job sometimes. There are weeks where I am out doing appointments and door knocking and although I haven?t achieved any sales, I had an okay week. I walk into my office on a Friday and my boss asks me immediately, ?how many deals have you done this week?? to which I reply ?none?. ?What kind of salesman are you if you can?t close a deal? and what have you been doing, watching Countdown? why are you back in the office if you haven?t done any business? go out there and close.?
?How the hell do I stay motivated and positive when I get that response every time I walk into the office without a sale??
This is very common for remote field sales people, so let me ask you some questions:
?What did you achieve that week?? He replied ?Weren?t you listening, I got no sales at all, so nothing? he angrily rebutted. I argued the point and said, ?I guarantee you did achieve things, you are just closed off to it right now.?
Me: How many new opportunities did you find that week that you didn?t have at the beginning of the week?
Salesman: Well about eight I guess but surely if I didn?t close them it?s irrelevant?
Me: And out of those eight how many decision makers? names did you identify?
Salesman: All of them, what?s your point?
Me: Did you find out the situation within those eight companies?
Salesman: Yeah, I found out the supplier they are with, the products they use and their contract date, but I didn?t close any of them.
Me: What you are missing is you are in a better position now than you were at the beginning of the week, as you have identified eight new businesses with which you will be able to work. If you stay in touch with them there?s a very strong possibility one of their suppliers will mess up and immediately you can get in. Equally I would rather 10% of something than 100% of nothing, so worth positioning yourself as their back up supplier. You clearly qualified the prospect, who?s to say in the near future their requirements don?t change and they may need something you offer that their suppliers cannot.
So the key is focus on what you did get, as opposed to focusing on what you didn?t. There will be days where you get hold of forty companies that for whatever reason you cannot help.
Rather than hang yourself, understand that you had to call those forty at some point, so at least you got them out of the way. You can now read ?Dear Sales Doctor? every week in the Evening Standard
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's three biggest mobile operators are teaming up to launch a service they hope will help them better compete with the likes of WhatsApp, Viber and Skype, which are luring customers with the promise of free phone calls and messages.
The Joyn service from Telefonica's Movistar, France Telecom's Orange and Vodafone will offer free messaging, enhanced call features and in some cases free calls.
The move comes amid a sharp fall in the number of paid-for text messages sent in recession-hit Spain, where the unemployment rate stands at one in four and where WhatsApp is the best-selling application on Apple Inc's App Store.
The service has become so well known that the local government on the southern island of Tenerife has said officials should use the application to cut mobile bills.
Joyn, which allows users to send video and pictures while on a smart phone, is available for Android phones and will shortly launch for Apple's iPhone.
More telecoms companies in Spain and globally are expected to offer the service, which will be implemented across operators in Germany later this year and in several European countries in 2013.
"This is the beginning of something that will cross most operators in most countries," said Graham Trickey, senior projects director at telecoms organization GSMA.
Telefonica and Vodafone have lost hundreds of thousands of clients in Spain this year since they stopped subsiding smartphones, a policy Vodafone recently reversed.
Cash-strapped consumers are spending less on traditional telecom services, a boon to Internet-based services like WhatsApp and Skype.
The number of paid-for text messages sent in Spain dropped to 1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2012, from 1.9 billion in the same period the year before, according to the country's telecoms regulator.
Operators are keen to maintain customer loyalty, even if they are not making money from them. And Telefonica, Vodafone and Orange could charge for some Joyn services in future.
"It's possible that in the future we could launch new added-value services that could be paid for, for example better quality videocalls," a spokeswoman for Orange Spain said.
Faced with criticism from users on Facebook, authorities at Tajikistan have blocked access to the networking site a second time. Tajik communications service head Beg Zukhurov said that Facebook has been spreading criticism about the Central Asian country?s leadership. He added that users were spreading ?mud and slander? about top government officials, including President Emomali Rakhmon. Rakhmon has been ruling Tajikistan since 1992 and is going to run for the new term as well.
?These people are obviously paid well for this,? Zukhurov said. He also said that the authorities had received many requests from ?indignant Tajik citizens asking that this hotbed of slander be blocked.? Facebook has more than 41,000 users in Tajikistan. However, the country?s three internet providers and three mobile operators blocked access to Facebook starting Monday,
This is not the first time Facebook has been blocked in Tajikistan. This ban was also placed in early March for several days in early March.
I recently officially moved out of my parents house. I was living in a condo while at school, but ?got a house with my fiance, and have been moving a lot of my old stuff from their house into our new home. While I was away at college though, my sister?s cats turned my old room into a cat playground. Unfortunately, this lead to cat hair and urine all over my old clothes. I have been going through and washing everything with vinegar, which has mostly helped with the smell. The only problem I?m having now is that the carpet and the room near the hallway that I sorted through the clothes smells faintly of urine. I can smell it pretty strongly when I walk into the bathroom, though I didn?t ever bring any of those clothes into that room.
Any ideas on what to do?
I?ve vacuumed all the carpet in the area, but the smell is still there.
Signed, Catastrophe in Catawba
Heather says:
Sisters, cats, what do you do?
As far as the bathroom, if this is your first time living with a man. . . try wiping around the base of the toilet with an acidic, all-purpose cleaner. Let?s see if that doesn?t solve the urine odor in the bathroom. It?d be nice to blame the cat, but. . . I have my suspicions here. I have a part time job in a pub and yes, we all take turns cleaning the bathrooms. The women?s restrooms do not smell like urine, it?s a guy thing from splashing. Yuck, I know. Clean it up (ask him to clean it?) and carry-on with your day.
As far as the odor in the carpet, your best bet is to get an enzymatic carpet cleaner like Kids N Pets and rent a steam cleaner from the hardware or grocery store. Since the pet was not actually in your home, I doubt that any urine has wicked all the way to the padding. If that were the case, I would highly recommend hiring a professional carpet cleaner as their machines are generally in better condition, with more powerful extractors AND they often guarantee their services.
Just make sure you follow the directions on the steam cleaner AND run a fan, box or oscillating, over the carpet until it is completely dry. You do not want to remove the pet urine odor and replace it with the odor of ?mildew. Bleh.
Good luck!
Submit your questions to?helpme@home-ec101.com.
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Special offer from Enterprise Car Sales - purchase a '12 Dodge Grand Caravan Crew or SXT with 26,000-32,000 miles for $17,997. Prices valid 11/1/12 - 11/30/12 and do not include tax, title, tags, processing fees of $199 or less as required by state law.Features: Traction Control,AdvanceTrac,ABS (4-Wheel),Air Conditioning,Power Steering,Tilt Wheel,AM/FM Stereo,Dual Air Bags,Head Curtain Air Bags,Steel Wheels,Side Air Bags,Black front/rear stone cuffs,Cargo lamp integrated w/high mount stop light,Fixed rear window,Interval wipers,Removable tailgate w/key lock & lift assist,Painted argent front bumper w/black lower valance & upper fascia,Rear solar tint glass,P235/75R17 all-terrain BSW tires,Full-size spare tire w/lock underframe winch-type carrier safety catch,Outer scuff pad,Argent rear step bumper,17 grey styled steel wheels,Black manual side mirrors,Black door & tailgate handles,Black grille surround w/black bar style insert,Tilt steering column,Manual air conditioning,SecuriLock anti-theft ignition (PATS),Instrument panel mounted cigar lighter,Vinyl 40/20/40 split bench front seat,Sunvisors w/driver side strap passenger mirror,Black ring w/black vanes air conditioning registers,Black vinyl floor covering (N/A w/47R Floor Mats),Display center -inc: warning messages & text functions,Driver & passenger door scuff plates,Front passenger side A-pillar grab handle,Floor console cupholder,Front pwr point,Gray urethane steering wheel,Trailer sway control,Rear wheel drive,6450# GVWR 1700# maximum payload,72-amp/hr (650CCA) maintenance-free battery,Long-spindle double wishbone front suspension w/coil-over-shock IFS,Leaf spring rear suspension w/2-stage variable rear springs,Gas shock absorbers,Pwr rack & pinion steering,Easy Fuel capless fuel filler system,6.5' pickup box,Pwr front & rear disc brakes,135-amp alternator,4.6L 2V EFI V8 engine,2-ton jack,(4) pickup box tie-down hooks,Anti-lock braking system (ABS),Dual note horn,SOS post crash alert system,Tire pressure monitoring system,Dual stage driver & passenger seat-mounted side airbags,Safety Canopy front side curtain airbags,Dual stage driver & passenger front airbags w/passenger off switch,AdvancTrac w/roll stability control (RSC),Center front 3-point safety belt,Rear door child safety locksDisclaimer: Price does not include tax, title, tags, governmental fees, any emissions testing charges, and any finance charges (if applicable). Unless otherwise stated separately in the vehicle details, price does not include processing, administrative, closing or similar fees of $199 or less. Vehicles subject to prior sale. We make every effort to provide accurate information including but not limited to price, miles and vehicle options, but please verify with your local Enterprise Car Sales location before purchasing. Current mileage may vary due to test drives and vehicle relocation. Used vehicles were previously part of Enterprise short term rental, lease fleet or purchased by Enterprise from other sources including auto auctions, with previous use possibly short term rental, lease or other.
We love dominoes. They?re simple but timeless, and always fun. Blue Orange Games has a game called Bendomino that looks like a lot of fun for domino lovers like us.
BENDOMINO
?
One twist of strategy, two twists of fun! Bendominoes play like regular dominoes, but their innovative curvy design gives the player more control over the game, tiles need to match and fit Full of challenges, Bendomino offers thrilling play in which strategy, luck and good times are always combined Bendomino requires matching and fitting pieces together for shape recognition, hand-eye coordination, color recognition and visual perception Great for kids and adults Blue Orange plants two trees for every tree used to produce their games A great game for all generations!
Game trailer:
The product(s) featured in this post was provided free of cost to me for the sole purpose of product testing and review or inclusion in the holiday gift guide. This post has not been monetarily compensated. Please note that any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own and have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.
Tags: 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, Bendomino, Blue Orange Games, games
FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2008 file photo, Model Gabriel Aubry and actress Halle Berry attends the Calvin Klein 40th anniversary party during Fashion Week in New York. Berry's ex-boyfriend Aubry was arrested for investigation of battery after he and the Oscar-winning actress' current boyfriend got into a fight at her California home, police said Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2008 file photo, Model Gabriel Aubry and actress Halle Berry attends the Calvin Klein 40th anniversary party during Fashion Week in New York. Berry's ex-boyfriend Aubry was arrested for investigation of battery after he and the Oscar-winning actress' current boyfriend got into a fight at her California home, police said Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Halle Berry's ex-boyfriend claims the actress's fiance threatened to kill him during a Thanksgiving confrontation that left him with a broken rib, bruised face and under arrest.
Gabriel Aubry's claims are included in court filings that led a judge Monday to grant a restraining order against actor Olivier Martinez, who is engaged to the Oscar-winning actress.
Aubry, 37, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery after his confrontation with Martinez on Thursday, but he states in the civil court filings that he was not the aggressor and that he was threatened and attacked without provocation. Martinez told police that Aubry had attacked first, the filings state.
A representative for Martinez could not be immediately reached for comment.
Aubry's filing claims Martinez threatened him the day before the fight at an event at his daughter's school that he and the actors attended. Aubry, a model, has a 4-year-old daughter with Berry and the former couple have been engaged in a lengthy custody battle.
The proceedings have been confidential, but Aubry states a major aspect of the case was Berry's wish to move to Paris and take her daughter with her. The request was denied Nov. 9, Berry's court filings state, and Aubry shares joint custody of the young girl.
Aubry claims Martinez told him, "You cost us $3 million," while he was punched and kicked him in the driveway of Berry's home. Aubry had gone to the home to allow his daughter to spend Thanksgiving with her mother, the filings state. Aubry claims Martinez threatened to kill him if Aubry didn't move to Paris.
Berry was not in the driveway during the confrontation and neither was their daughter, the documents state.
Photos of Aubry's face with cuts and a black eye were included in his court filing.
A judge set a hearing for Dec. 17 to consider whether a three-year restraining order should be granted. Aubry has a Dec. 13 court date for the possible battery case, which has not yet been filed by prosecutors.
___
Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .
DOHA, Qatar -- U.N. talks on a new climate pact resumed Monday in oil and gas-rich Qatar, where negotiators from nearly 200 countries will discuss fighting global warming and helping poor nations adapt to it.
The two-decade-old talks have not fulfilled their main purpose: reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet.
Attempts to create a new climate treaty failed in Copenhagen three years ago but countries agreed last year to try again, giving themselves a deadline of 2015 to adopt a new treaty.
A host of issues need to be resolved by then, including how to spread the burden of emissions cuts between rich and poor countries.
Focus on Kyoto Protocol, raising money That is unlikely to be decided in the two-week talks in the Qatari capital of Doha, where negotiators will focus on extending the Kyoto Protocol, an emissions deal for industrialized countries, and trying to raise billions of dollars to help developing countries adapt to a shifting climate.
EPA
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana Mashabane speaks during the opening of the climate talks in Doha, Qatar, on Monday.
Activists hope storm-struck US will deliver at Doha climate talks
"We all realize why we are here, why we keep coming back year and after year," said South Africa Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who led last year's talks in Durban, South Africa. "We owe it to our people, the global citizenry. We owe it to our children to give them a safer future than what they are currently facing."
The U.N. process is often criticized, even ridiculed, both by climate activists who say the talks are too slow, and by those who challenge the scientific near-consensus that the global temperature rise is at least partly caused by human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil.
The concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide has jumped 20 percent since 2000, according to a U.N. report released last week. The report also showed that there is a growing gap between what governments are doing to curb emissions and what needs to be done to protect the world from potentially dangerous levels of warming.
The goal of the U.N. talks is to keep the global temperature rise under 3.6 F, compared to pre-industrial times.
The Maldives, the lowest-lying nation on Earth, is at risk of disappearing from the world map, scientists say.
Obama: 'I won't go' for climate action that hurts jobs, growth
The threat 'today' But efforts taken so far to rein in emissions, reduce deforestation and promote clean technology are not getting the job done. A recent projection by the World Bank showed temperatures are expected to increase by up to 7.2 F by 2100.
"Climate change is no longer some distant threat for the future, but is with us today," said Greenpeace climate campaigner Martin Kaiser, who was also at the Doha talks. "At the end of a year that has seen the impacts of climate change devastate homes and families around the world, the need for action is obvious and urgent."
Dangerous warming effects could include flooding of coastal cities and island nations, disruptions to agriculture and drinking water, the spread of diseases and the extinction of species.
Many scientists also say that extreme weather events, such as Hurricane Sandy's onslaught on the U.S. East Coast, will become more frequent as the Earth warms, although it is impossible to attribute any individual event to climate change.
The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, is the most important climate agreement reached in the U.N. process so far. It expires this year, so negotiators in Doha will try to extend it as a stopgap measure until a wider deal can be reached.
Ex-climate change skeptic: Humans cause global warming
For thousands of years, permafrost has trapped Siberia's carbon-rich soil, a compost of Ice Age plant and animal remains. But global warming is melting the permafrost and exposing the soil, causing highly flammable methane to seep out. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
Divisions The problem is that only the European Union and a handful of other countries -- that together are behind less than 15 percent of global emissions -- are willing to put down emissions targets for a second commitment period of Kyoto.
The United States rejected Kyoto because it did not impose any binding commitments on major developing countries such as India and China, which is now the world's No. 1 carbon emitter.
Climate-changing methane 'rapidly destabilizing' off East Coast, study finds
The United States and other Western countries insist that the firewall in the climate talks between developing and developed countries must be removed so that the new treaty can apply to all nations.
China and other developing countries want to maintain a clear division, saying climate change is mainly a legacy of Western industrialization and that their own emissions must be allowed to grow as their economies expand, lifting millions of people out of poverty.
The Inuit, who survived for centuries by hunting seals and whales, are watching their way of life disappear.
Complete Environment coverage on NBCNews.com
That discord scuttled attempts to forge a climate deal in Copenhagen in 2009 and risks a relapse in Doha as talks begin on a new global deal that is supposed to be adopted in 2015 and implemented in 2020.
The rich-poor divide is also deepened by arguments over climate aid meant to help developing countries convert to cleaner energy sources and adapt their infrastructure to rising sea levels and other effects of global warming.
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FILE - This Feb. 10, 2011 file photo shows Texas Rangers team president Nolan Ryan during a news conference in Arlington, Texas. A new book by the baseball Hall of Famer will be a bit of a sizzler. The game's all-time strikeout king is also a longtime Texas rancher and has compiled dozens of his favorite recipes for "The Nolan Ryan Beef Cookbook." Little, Brown and Co. announced Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, that the book is scheduled for May 2014. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - This Feb. 10, 2011 file photo shows Texas Rangers team president Nolan Ryan during a news conference in Arlington, Texas. A new book by the baseball Hall of Famer will be a bit of a sizzler. The game's all-time strikeout king is also a longtime Texas rancher and has compiled dozens of his favorite recipes for "The Nolan Ryan Beef Cookbook." Little, Brown and Co. announced Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, that the book is scheduled for May 2014. (AP Photo/File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? A new book by baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan will be a bit of a sizzler.
The game's all-time strikeout king is also a longtime Texas rancher and has compiled dozens of his favorite recipes for "The Nolan Ryan Beef Cookbook." Little, Brown and Co. announced Monday that the book is scheduled for May 2014.
The 65-year-old Ryan also plans to work in a few baseball stories, from his years pitching for the New York Mets, California Angels and other teams to his current job as CEO and president of the Texas Rangers. His previous books include the memoirs "Miracle Man" and "Throwing Heat."
ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2012) ? The stems of shrubs have given researchers a window into a glacier's past, potentially allowing them to more accurately assess how they're set to change in the future.
Their findings have been published 27 November in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, and show how a glacier's history of melting can be extended way past the instrumental record.
Much like the rings on a tree stump indicate how old it is, measuring the width of rings on the stem of a shrub can give a good indication of how well it has grown year on year. Under extreme environmental conditions, such as those close to a glacier, a shrub's growth relies heavily on summer temperatures, meaning the ring-width of a shrub can be used a proxy for glacial melting, which also relies heavily on summer temperatures.
Lead author of the study, Allan Buras, said: "In warm summers, shrubs grow more compared to cold summers. In contrast, a glacier's summer mass balance is more negative in warm summers, meaning there is more melting compared to cold summers.
"Big rings in shrubs therefore indicate comparably warm summers, and thus a strongly negative summer mass balance -- in other words, more melting."
The researchers, from the University of Greifswald, tested this theory on a local icecap in the Scandic Mountains of southern Norway. They took 24 samples of shrubs from a site close to the glacier and analysed their ring-widths.
Monthly precipitation and temperature data from a local climate station were retrieved from the Norwegian Meteorological Office, and the summer mass balance of the glacier, from 1963 to 2010, was retrieved from the existing literature.
Each of these data sets was then statistically tested to see if there was a correlation between them. The results showed a robust and reliable correlation between the ring-width of shrubs and the summer melting of the glacier.
"Our results show that it is possible to reconstruct glacier summer mass balance with shrub ring-width series and it is therefore theoretically possible to extent records of summer mass balance into the past," Buras continued.
The shrubs that were collected in the study were relatively young, only allowing for reliable reconstructions over the past 36 years, meaning they could not be used to extend the record of the glacier; however, the researchers are confident that this could have been achieved if longer-lived shrubs were selected.
Most of the available data on the mass balance of glaciers only spans several decades and there is some data missing, mainly because most glaciers are situated in hard-to-reach arctic and alpine areas.
With the possibility to extend the instrumental records of summer mass balance, researchers may gain a better understanding of how glaciers behave in the summer, which they can use to calibrate and verify their existing models.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institute of Physics.
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Journal Reference:
Allan Buras, Martin Hallinger, Martin Wilmking. Can shrubs help to reconstruct historical glacier retreats?Environmental Research Letters, 2012; 7 (4): 044031 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044031
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The tough economic times have had a huge effect on scientific research and development funding. The looming "fiscal cliff" may be the last straw for many programs. "The American science programs that landed the first man on the moon, found cures for deadly diseases and bred crops that feed the world now face the possibility of becoming relics in the story of human progress.
American scientific research and development stands to lose thousands of jobs and face a starvation diet of reduced funding if politicians fail to compromise and halt the United States' march towards the fiscal cliff's sequestration of federal funds."
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It's been a big year for BitTorrent, said Matt Mason, the company's executive director of marketing. Mason and his team have been working with big names like DJ Shadow and Tim Ferriss to figure out how to turn filesharing into a source of revenue. I met with Mason (who also wroteThe Pirate's Dilemma) last week to discuss how BitTorrent can work with the music industry and the company's plans for next year. Mason joined BitTorrent?almost exactly a year ago, and since then, the company has run a total of 16 artist campaigns. It hasn't found the One True Solution to monetizing music yet, and Mason said the answer won't come in the next few months, but the next quarter "will get us closer."
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Futuristic eco-hotels are nothing new, but there's something unique about the one shown above: it's well on its way to being created. Crafted by the Barcelona-based IN-TENTA creative design group, the removable hotel room is scheduled to be manufactured by Urban Square. Reportedly, it'll be dropped into "natural locations," with the shell keeping everything above ground in order to make a minimal dent in the Earth itself. As these things usually go, there doesn't seem to be much talk on how the plumbing will be handled, but really, who cares about details when you're living like this?
As Irish communities formed abroad, so too did a network of media focused on Irish affairs. But in the digital age, do emigrants still want these local papers, asks BRIAN O?CONNELL?
Brian O'Connell interviewing Ken Livingstone in London. Photograph: Malcolm McNally/Irish Post
In the mid-1990s, I spent a number of summers in Cape Cod. We had one direct link with home, a house telephone, which enabled us to call family once a week to get the latest news. None of us had a mobile phone and access to the internet was limited. When Veronica Guerin was shot and killed in June 1996, it was 24 hours before the news filtered through.
The only other news link to home was chancing upon copies of the Irish Emigrant, a weekly newsletter emailed from Galway to a worldwide mailing list. It began in 1987 when Liam Ferrie emailed a number of his colleagues in Digital Equipment Corporation who worked abroad, with snippets of what was happening in Ireland.
It began to spread, but the only people with email at the time were those working in IT or academia, so circulation remained limited.
By the time I arrived in America a decade later, however, copies of the newsletter were being printed off and left on bar counters where Irish people socialised. The Irish Emigrant gave a concise breakdown of the main headlines in Ireland along with some opinion pieces, and by the time it ceased last year it had become one of the oldest online publications in the world, reaching emigrants in dozens of countries.
With emigrants and Irish communities now able to read newspapers such as The Irish Times every day online or listen to RT??s Morning Ireland as they come home from work in Sydney, I began to wonder why anyone would need a filtering of the news several days behind in print form, and whether Irish community newspapers still had a role to play. Over the past year, I have travelled to Belfast, London, New York and Sydney to make a radio series, Home News, which explores how Irish communities stay in touch with Ireland.
Some titles have been quick to recognise the shift in attitudes among newer emigrants, who are as likely to identify with fellow international professionals as they are with exclusively Irish communities. They are less likely to attend Irish centres in Boston or Birmingham, and their sense of place is less reliant on being articulated by community newspapers, given that they can digitally maintain links with home.
The Irish Voice, under editor Niall O?Dowd, has been a strong voice and advocate for the Irish in America for a quarter of a century. O?Dowd, who also publishes Irish America magazine, is now focusing more on his online product, irishcentral.com, than on his printed offerings.
?The whole game has changed overnight,? says O?Dowd. ?I?m an old timer when it comes to media. You need well researched, good stories and I?m not into all the bells and whistles. Our website has a lot of original content and we are doubling our audience every year. The number of unique visitors each month dwarfs anything we ever did with the Irish Voice and we get more advertising now in our online products than we do in the newspaper. The train has left the station in terms of print. We are on a new journey.?
The Irish Post in London has had a dramatic two years. The paper, which calls itself the ?voice of the Irish in Britain?, went into liquidation in 2011. A large effort was undertaken by leading members of the Irish community in the UK to get it back in print, before Cork-born businessman Elgin Loane stepped in to rescue the title.
Under then-editor Murray Morse, it quickly found itself in controversy when the paper accused President Michael D Higgins of snubbing the Irish community in London by reneging on a promise to give the paper a one-on-one interview on his visit to the UK in 2012.
Many of those who had campaigned for the paper to return were calling on it to apologise, and the issue raised the question of whether the paper was still relevant at a time when newer Irish arrivals in the UK didn?t feel as strong a need to assert their Irishness as past generations had? The circulation had slipped from a high of 31,400 copies to under 20,000 by the time it closed.
It remains to be seen whether or not the title can regain the trust of the community it once served.
In Sydney, the Irish Echo is attempting to benefit from the large influx of Irish emigrants in recent years and is targeting new arrivals with free copies of the paper handed out in bars in areas such as Bondi Beach. But some of those new arrivals are somewhat ambivalent to the title, while the sheer size of the continent makes it difficult for the Irish Echo to reach many in its printed form.
To counteract this, the paper has invested in its online product and has a breaking-news section with regularly updated stories relating to the Irish community in Australia. The paper and its staff are also active on social media.
Northern pride
In Belfast, the Irish News is something of a success story and has begun selling more full-price editions than rival title the Belfast Telegraph for the first time in its history. It has moved from being preoccupied with ?deaths and the dogs? to a title now doing some strong work on social issues and gaining a level of cross-community appeal. The paper?s success is perhaps reflective of a rising Northern Irish identity and the ways in which media in Northern Ireland has had to seek out new readers following the Belfast Agreement.
Riverdance co-founder John McColgan?s new project WorldIrish.comaims to connect the Irish diaspora in new ways in the future. The site describes itself as an online portal, and has a team of journalists who help source material and stories that they feel may be of relevance to the site?s members, many of who are of Irish extraction, but based outside Ireland. McColgan hopes his website can become something of a virtual Irish bar, allowing the Irish community abroad to be the content creators of the project.
?Gabriel Byrne, who is on our advisory board and a great supporter of the project, put it very well when he said that Ireland has forgotten about the diaspora but we haven?t forgotten about Ireland,? says McColgan.
?They do feel ignored. The diaspora are not one group and there are different levels of engagement. The common glue that holds them all together, whatever their own perspective, is their interest in Ireland, either currently or in their heritage or in their genealogy.
?On so many levels, Ireland is an emotive and powerful brand.?
Home News begins on RT? Radio 1 at 7.30pm tomorrow, and continues every Saturday until December 22nd. Podcasts can be downloaded from rte.ie/radio1/homenews
?The paper was a touch of green in your fingers?
David Egan , an Irish artist originally from Dublin, emigrated to Sydney in the 1980s. egangallery.com
David Egan: 'The paper was a touch of green in your fingers'
?When I came here, I wanted to stay for a year at least and then I stayed on after that. The difference now is that my parents aren?t around any more. I have four boys and the trip to Dublin is very difficult. I feel homesick and it doesn?t particularly get any easier. You do crave and hunger the country as much as you ever did. I always say it is like there is 10 per cent of me missing while I?m living in Australia, and I know when I go home that 10 per cent is topped up.
?I listen a lot to [Irish] radio, especially Dave Fanning and I find that great. When I first came here I remember getting enough coinage, at least $10 worth, and popping them all in [to the phone] and speaking for three minutes and that was the end of the contact with home. With The Irish Times, for example, if it was posted it would have taken at least a week to get here.
?I bought the Irish Echo all the time when I arrived first and I still do buy it. I don?t know why. I?d say it is more a patriotic thing to buy the paper and for me it is about not letting go of a past routine. The paper was a touch of green in your fingers and I suppose there are a lot of Irish advertisements, community events and local news that you wouldn?t access elsewhere. That could be the reason it will survive.?
?The community here has become very underground?
John Normoyle (31), from Ennis, Co Clare, moved to New York in 2003 to work at the Clinton Foundation. He currently works as director of digital strategy with DraftFCB
?The community here has become very underground?
?Traditional news sources like The Irish Times or RT? are feeding me content that I find entertaining or useful if I am having conversations with other Irish people. What I?m seeing in Irish newspapers here in America is not really useful for me. I am much more interested in news that is actually happening in Ireland and being generated from there.
?The Irish American interpretation on things, or what is happening with that community, is not so important to me. I came here independently and was very lucky to have a job set up and somewhere to live. A lot of emigrants in the past didn?t have that safety net and I understand how Irish newspapers here helped them in networking.
? It is very difficult now to enter the US without a qualification or a job set up. I made very strategic choices in my career and put my head down with my green card in mind, literally from the day I landed. I feel the community here has become very segregated and gone slightly underground because of the undocumented situation.?
In The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity, mathematician Steven Strogatz provides an entertaining refresher course in math, starting with the most elementary ideas, such as counting, and finishing with mind-bending theories of infinity?including the idea that some infinities can be bigger than others.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose for a fifth straight day during a holiday-shortened, thin trading session on Friday, as investors picked up recently beaten down shares of large technology companies.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 172.79 points, or 1.35 percent, to 13,009.68. The S&P 500 Index <.spx> added 18.12 points, or 1.30 percent, to 1,409.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gained 40.30 points, or 1.38 percent, to 2,966.85.
For the week, the Dow gained 3.3 percent, the S&P added 3.6 percent and the Nasdaq rose 4 percent.
The S&P 500 closed above 1,400 and the Dow above 13,000 for the first time since November 6.
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Faced with criticism from users on Facebook, authorities at Tajikistan have blocked access to the networking site a second time. Tajik communications service head Beg Zukhurov said that Facebook has been spreading criticism about the Central Asian country?s leadership. He added that users were spreading ?mud and slander? about top government officials, including President Emomali Rakhmon. Rakhmon has been ruling Tajikistan since 1992 and is going to run for the new term as well.
Heather says:
It's been a big year for 
